To begin with, I would like to congratulate the elected and
appointed members to the their positions for the next two years. The only
elected position at the December meeting was the office of Treasurer. Dave
Johnson was elected to that spot.

Prior to the meeting in Lapeer, I received a communication from
Walt WD8RCH stating “Due to health problems and time constraints I am
submitting my resignation as director effective December 1, 2005.”

Ron Gordon, whose term had expired as a Director, was appointed to
fill the one-year term that was open do to the resignation. When the elections
were held the office of Vice-President and Director was still vacant even after
nominations were re-opened.

Jim Kvochick WB8AZP was appointed to fill the position of
Director.

I am pleased to announce that James Maike KB8IFE, who has been an
officer of MARC in the past, was approved by the Board to fill the position of
Vice-President. We now have a full Board.

I have taken over the duties of Coordinator for 440 and Down
frequencies. I have started going through the records that Kelly Karpp had. Some
of the request for New Coordination’s are so old, that I will make an attempt
to contact the applicant to verify the information on the TDS’ sent in.

Phil Manor W8IC, who takes care of the NOPC from out of state,
link and control frequencies coordinator, has taken on the 6M coordination’s.

Please send your 2006 dues direct to Dave Johnson 2266 E
Vermontville Hwy, Charlotte, and MI 48813-8705. If you send it to the general
mail P.O. Box in Mt. Clemens, this will only delay the process.

The ARRL Directory has gone to print. If your TDS is current, you
will be in the new directory. If your TDS is at the three-year mark you will
not.

The March meeting will be on the in Battle Creek, at the Battle
Creek Elks. Directions else where in this newsletter.

The June meeting will be the Traverse City, and the September
meeting in Delta Twp.

If anyone has any questions, you can reach the Board via of the
website, or my phone number is 586-465-7126. For those of making the meeting on
the March 5th, I’ll see you there.

73,

Dennis, W8DFG

President

Old Business:

Nominations opened for positions of Vice President, Treasurer and
Director.

Vice President:no
nominations.

Treasurer:Kelly, KB8RWG
(I) and Dave Johnson, WD8DJB.

Director:Ron Gordon, W8YUC
(I). Ron, W8YUC withdrew at this time.

Vote taken for treasurer; Dave Johnson, WD8DJB was elected
unanimously.

Next elections will be held in September 2006 for the positions of
President, Secretary and Director.

Phil, W8IC stated that in resolution #6, the statement
“442.000-444.975, repeater inputs should be“repeater outputs”. Phil proposed that this be amended to
“outputs”.2nd by Dan, N8WKM,
discussion, motion carried.

New Business:

Dave WD8DJB stated that the ARRL Repeater Directory goes to press
in January and he requested that all TDS’s be submitted by the end of the year.

Phil, W8IC:made a
proposal to add a resolution under the DOG to make changes to the MARC
standards as follows:

Resolution #8:move to
make changes to the MARC Standard to add additional coordination guidelines for
Auxiliary Stations (links and control stations) as follows:

MARC standard

I.Coordination
Standards

A.

8.Auxiliary
stations that are used to link two or more individual repeatersystems
shall comply with the following:

Transmitter power may exceed 10 watts to accomplish the link but
shall not exceed 50 watts.Links using
transmitter power levels in excess of 10 watts shall use directional antennas
with a minimum of 6-dBi forward gain and the antenna must be aimed so that the
major lobe is centered on the receive site. Higher gain antennas and using the
minimum power necessary to complete a link are recommended, as it allows the
coordinator to more effectively assign the available spectrum.These links are not intended to extend the
coverage of any individual repeater beyond its coordinated area.

2nd by Ron, W8YUC: discussion.

Dan, N8WKM, moved to amend the motion to require a minimum of at
least 9-dBi forward gain. Supported by Ron, W8YUC, discussion followed.

Motion to amend to 9-dBi approved.Original motion carried as amended.

Database
Managers Corner

Another year has come and gone and our MARC database remains in
good shape.The 2006/2007 ARRL Repeater
Directory submission was completed January 13th on schedule.There have been lots of database updates
over the course of the year, but I am managing stay on top of it, although at
times I get a bit swamped.I will try
in the coming year to refresh our MARC Repeater Directory web pages at least
once a month.

Now I’m not one to beg for work but we still have roughly 20% of
our repeaters with overdue TDS’s.Trustee’s if you haven’t checked our MARC Repeater Directory in awhile
to check your status now might be a good time.It will save the MARC Board time and expense, if we don’t have to send
out decoordination notices.TDS forms
need to be filed at least once every two years.

Thanks to all of you who take the time to submit accurate
updates.It really makes my job easier
and improves the validity of MARC data.

Minutes from previous meeting read by Ann, KT8F.Phil, W8IC requested that the time limit for
his DOG proposal in June 2005 be corrected from 2 years to 3 years, as is
actually stated in resolution #2.It
was incorrectly listed as 2 years in the minutes.This was approved.Motion to accept the amended minutes as printed in the newsletter made
by Phil, W8IC, and 2nd by Ron W8YUC, motion carried.

No treasurer’s report.

No correspondence.

Dennis, W8DFG stated that Walt, WD8RCH has resigned as director,
per a phone conversation with Walt.At
this time Ron, W8YUC stated that he would like to fill the rest of Walt’s
year.With the Board’s approval, Ron
was appointed to fill the rest of Walt’s year.

Dan, N8WKM made a motion that Jim, Kvochick, WB8AZP be appointed
to the position of director, 2nd by Ron, W8YUC, discussion, motion carried.

Phil, W8IC brought the following questions to the Board:

If an adjacent state requests a frequency for a repeater that our
band plan has reserved for links and controls, can we not object to the
coordination if the distance is over 100 miles from the Michigan border?Discussion followed.It was agreed that a rejection should be
sent with a note that, because of the distance, interference should not be as
issue.

Other states now have SNPR repeater frequencies reserved.Ours do not match up on some
frequencies.Since SNPR repeaters
should have no further range than one of our regular links, should we not
object if it clears our boundaries by 100 miles?Discussion followed.It
was agreed that we should not respond unless it will effect existing links in
our state as these are shared non protected repeaters and are not coordinated
in Michigan.

Should any of our adjacent state guidelines for coordination be
put into the bylaws?Example - the
100-mile agreement for adjacent states repeater spacing.Discussion followed.It was mentioned that MAC was the body that
got an agreement of 100 miles between adjacent states.Some states placed this agreement into their
bylaws and others held with the agreement as a “gentleman’s agreement.”It was decided that a proposal should be
made to put the agreement into our bylaws by proposing a resolution using the
DOG.Phil will work on this resolution.

A question was asked – are any Canadian coordinators ever heard
from?Phil stated that they do respond
to his requests for clearance.

A question was asked on the time required to coordinate a 6-meter
repeater.No definite time frame was
given, but it should not be too long.

KB8LJB described a situation regarding the club CCARA.Discussion occurred regarding the holder of
the coordination of this repeater.

Per MARC records, the CCARA (sponsor) is the holder of the
coordination, provided they comply with the MARC Bylaws.

Motion to adjourn the meeting made by Ron, W8YUC and 2nd by
George, K8GEO.Time 1:54 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Ann Manor, KT8F

Treasurer’s Report

I took over as treasurer at the Dec 4th MARC meeting
after my election.Dennis Gaboury,
W8DFG, mailed me a cashier’s check in the amount of $ 3,915.10, drawn on our
previous MARC account at Northland Area Federal Credit Union.My treasurer’s report will start with this
dispersal.Dennis and Phil, K8IC are in
the process of running a “starndard transfer of duties” audit of the books
received from Kelly Karpp, KB8RWG, past treasurer.

I have opened a MARC checking and savings accounts at Farm Bureau
Family Credit Union in Lansing, with the cashier’s check of $ 3,915.10.W8DFG and WD8DJB are signatories on the
account.